Here's one you don't see every day. Delta Airlines passed out napkins for people to flirt with strangers on a plane. It says, "Because you're on a plane full of interesting people and hey...you never know," and then on the back is a place for your name and cell phone number so you can, well, start dating. One napkin says, "Write down your number and give it to your plane crush." Not everyone thought it was a good idea and called it "creepy" and social media had a field day. Coke and Delta both apologized for the napkins, but chances are good they knew what they were doing all along. But the napkins are gone.

Coors knows a good promo when they see it. When 101-year-old World War II veteran Andrew Slavonic was asked how he lived so long, he said cracking open a Coors Light every day at four o’clock. That, he said, is the secret to long life. When Coors heard about his secret, they flew out a refrigerator branded with Coors stocked full of Coors Light. And not only that, Andrew and his son are invited to Golden, Colorado, to tour the Coors Light facility. See you in the Rockies, said Coors! And there’s nothing like a secret-to-long-life story to get great press coverage all across the USA. So drink up, and live long!

Drive up to McDonald’s and unlock Burger King’s one-cent whopper via the Burger King app. (Image from adweek.com)

Tom Carroll’s Strategy of the Week

December 7, 2018

Burger King had a problem - sales were down and people weren't downloading its app. So it came up with a new promotion. The ONE CENT WHOPPER. But how you get it is the creative part. If you are within 600 feet of a McDonald's, you can download the BK app and qualify for a one cent Whopper at Burger King. You qualify and then get directions to the nearest Burger King. In this way Burger King gets McDonald's clients to come over to BK and download the app too for future promotions. About 50,000 people have taken advantage of the promo so far, twenty times more than any other promotion it's done. And the Burger King app has moved to #1 on Apple's App Store. It's been a huge success. The deal is valid near 14,000 McDonald's locations, but no word on how Mickey D's feels about it.

Nebraska had a problem. It was ranked 50 on the list of states people wanted to visit. Why? Flat, boring, lots of corn, no beaches, not a lot to do. So Nebraska decided to be disruptive. It came up with a new slogan, "NEBRASKA -- HONESTLY, IT'S NOT FOR EVERYONE." The ad campaign makes people laugh and take another look at the state to visit. It actually corrects stereotypes by showing that there actually is something to do there. Anyway, the whole country is now talking about the state's honest slogan, and to go there to experience people, farmers, and a Midwest way of life. The Nebraska campaign went viral overnight, Colbert talked about it, newsrooms were humming. And funny thing, tests show that people are more likely to go to Nebraska.